Carpe Diem Modern Times Haiku #5 Richard Wright's "an autumn evening"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's Tuesday again and that means ... time for an all new episode of our special feature "Modern Times Haiku". I have a wonderful haiku for you written by Richard Wright (1908-1960). Not that long ago he was the featured haiku poet here at CDHK (November 2014), but he has written a lot of beauties (all in the last 2 years of his life).

Richard Wright (1908-1960) was introduced to haiku in the summer of 1959 when he borrowed R. H. Blyth's four volumes of Haiku from a young South African and began his intensive research of the Japanese masters.

By March of 1960, Wright went into high gear composing haiku. During the final months of his life, he practically lived and breathed haiku, always carrying his haiku binder with him under his arm everywhere he went. He wrote haiku in Parisian cáfes and restaurants; in Le Moulin d' Anduve, a writing community in the French countryside; but many, like Shiki, were written while he was bedridden during his period of convalescence.

In Paris, he transferred his poems written on paper napkins to sheets of paper and then hung them up on long metal rods and strung them across his dingy studio to examine, similar to Paul Reps' idea of hanging his haiku up on lines stretched between bamboo poles.

This is one of my favorite haiku written by Richard Wright and I have turned it into a haiga ...  

Credits: autumn evening

What do you think? Is this a beauty or is this a beauty? Will it inspire you to write an all new haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form? I am looking forward ...

Here is my response on this beauty by Richard Wright.

moon reflects in the pond
this autumn evening - deep silence
rustling of leaves

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode of Modern Times Haiku is open for your submissions at noon (CET) and will remain open until next Tuesday September 29th at noon (CET). Have fun! 

Carpe Diem Modern Times Haiku #4 waves crash

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I am happy to create another episode of CD Modern Times Haiku. Last week there were a few circumstances so I couldn't do an episode of this special feature, but this week I have time to bring another modern haiku poet to your attention to inspire you.

This week I love to introduce you to Michael Ketchek (1954 - ). Michael Ketchek lives in Rochester NY. Michael says he is a lifelong Yankee fan and hiker who prefers dark beer. Michael reports that he was introduced to haiku by his third grade teacher in the Rochester Public schools. In the past 15 years, his haiku, senryu, haibun and tanka have appeared in numerous publications.



Michael Ketchek

I have found a few wonderful haiku written by Michael and I think those haiku can inspire you to write an all new haiku (or tanka). This week I love to challenge you a little bit more.

Your haiku has to follow a few classical rules, which I will give hereafter, and I love to challenge you to create a short chained renga of a maximum of six (6) stanza. First I will give you a few classical rules.

1. 5-7-5 syllables;
2. A moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water;
3.A kigo (seasonword)

And here are the haiku by Michael Ketchek for your inspiration:

underside of a moth
crawling up the screen
darkness beyond

warm glow of dawn in
crumpled aluminum foil
behind the dumpster

waves crash
against the pier - the bottle
slips from my hand

© Michael Ketchek

Here is my attempt to reach for that goal I have given you:

the cry of a seagull
resonates through the dunes
waves pounding the beach

above the horizon dark clouds
far away sound of thunder

sun bathers running
to seek shelter for the thunderstorm
raindrops on my cheeks

caressing my friend's naked body
as we have found shelter in the barn

secret hide out
to share our body fluids
bales of straw

while making love
the cry of a seagull

© Chèvrefeuille

A challenging episode I think and a great haiku poet too.

This episode of Modern Times Haiku is open for your submissions at noon (CET) and will remain open until next Tuesday September 15th at noon (CET). Have fun!
!! permission is asked !!

Carpe Diem Modern Times Haiku #3 Jerry Kilbride (1930-2005)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy to present a new episode of our Tuesday feature "Carpe Diem Modern Times Haiku". This week I have a male haiku poet who sadly already has gone to heaven. His name is Jerry Kilbride (1930-2005). I couldn't find a brief biography of him, so I will give you a link to read more about him after the haiku which I have chosen to share here.

still in the taste
of afternoon tea . . .
my grandmother's brogue

the cool surface
of each potato planted -
dark of the moon

firecrackers,
the old soldier's fingers
tighten on his crutch

the wheelchair child
reaches for bubbles
she just blew

© Jerry Kilbride (1930-2005)

A biography of Jerry Kilbride you can find in: The "Bulletin"of the Californian State Library Foundation (Number 84 - 2006 pages 17-22) It's a nice story with a lot of information about Jerry Kilbride and lots of photos. 

Jerry Kilbride (1930-2005)

As you all know the goal is to write an all new haiku or tanka, or another Japanese poetry form, inspired on one (or more) haiku given above. I however wasn't inspired so I pass this time. Maybe I will come up with something later. Than I will link up.

!!! By the way: During lack of time I wasn't able to publish our anonymous list for our third kukai "juxtaposition" I hope to publish it later this week. Sorry !!!

This episode of Modern Times Haiku is open at noon (CET) and will remain open until next Tuesday September 1st at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem Modern Times Haiku #2 Margaret Chula's "following my footprints"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's Tuesday again and so it's time to discover another wonderful haiku poetess of the modern time. This time I love to introduce Margaret Chula to you all. She has a wonderful website and she is a well known haiku and tanka poetess.

Margaret Chula (born in 1947) lived in Japan for twelve years where she taught English and creative writing at universities in Kyoto. Her books include Grinding my ink (Haiku Society of America Book Award); This Moment; Shadow Lines (with Rich Youmans); Always Filling, Always Full; and The Smell of Rust. Her newest collection, What Remains: Japanese Americans in Internment Camps, a seven-year collaboration with quilt artist Cathy Erickson, includes poems in the voices of Japanese Americans interned during World War II. She has published poems in Prairie Schooner, Kyoto Journal, Poet Lore, America’s Review, and Runes, as well as in numerous haiku journals around the world. One of her haiku appears on Itoen tea bottles sold in stores and vending machines throughout Japan. Her one-woman performance of Japanese women poets (“Three Women Who Loved Love”), premiered in Krakow, Poland in 2003 and toured to Canada, Japan, and the U.S.

Margaret Chula

Margaret lives in Portland, Oregon, where she continues to teach and give work- shops at universities, poetry societies and Zen centers. Grants from Oregon Literary Arts and the Regional Arts & Culture Council have supported collaborations with artists, musicians, photographers and dancers.

following my footprints
of fifty years ago
those endless summers

this early heat
a carp arches
into the raindrops

in strawmat raincoats
farmers plant rice
their boots croaking

returning
the borrowed umbrella
splattered with blossoms

© Margaret Chula (1947 - )

All wonderful haiku. Margaret writes in a nice way, from the depth of her heart, as we know so well from our ancient masters like Chiyo-Ni and Basho.

she holds her hands
filled with the fragile beauty
of Cherry blossoms

© Chèvrefeuille

cherry blossoms © Chèvrefeuille  

I hope you did like this new episode of our Modern Times Haiku in which we explore the beauty written by Modern haiku poets (say from 1900 until now) to become inspired. Have fun!

This episode is open for your submissions at noon (CET) and will remain open until August 25th at noon (CET).

!! I am busy with creating the anonymous list of our third kukai "juxtaposition" I will publish it this week !!

Carpe Diem Modern Times Haiku #1 mother’s scarf

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It’s my pleasure to introduce an all new feature to you. Mostly we, at CDHK, are focused on classical haiku masters, but I think in our time we have also great haiku poets. I would like to introduce to you on a bi-weekly sequence to modern haiku poets, say from 1900 until now. As I thought about this feature I sought the Internet for a long time and I have found a few wonderful websites to extract my information about these modern haiku poets from.

As always there is a kind of task bound to every new feature. For this feature I love to ask you to write an all new haiku (or tanka) inspired on the given haiku, but they have to follow the rules of the classical haiku:

• 5-7-5
• a kigo or seasonword
• a kireji or cutting word (: ; , and so on)
• nature as it’s theme and humankind as part of it
• a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water
• interchanging the first and third line
• and (if possible) a deeper meaning, based on Zen Buddhism or another religious or spiritual kind of belief.

For this first episode of  “Carpe Diem Modern Times Haiku“ I have a haiku poetess for you, Peggy Willis Lyles (1939-2010). In every episode I will try to give a brief biography of the poet and so here I have a brief biography of Peggy Willis Lyles.

Peggy Willis-Lyles (1939-2010)

Peggy Willis Lyles was born in Summerville, South Carolina, on September 17, 1939. She died in Tucker, Georgia on September 3, 2010. A former English professor, she was a leading haiku writer for over 30 years—helping bring many readers and writers into the haiku community. Her voice and guidance will be missed in the community, but we know that her haiku will continue to touch so many souls in the future.

And of course I will share a few of the haiku which were written by these modern haiku poets. Here I have a few written/composed by Peggy. The first haiku was for me the reason to create this feature, because that haiku touched me deep ...

mother’s scarf
slides from my shoulder . . .
wild violets

a cool current
where the river deepens
summer sky

gray morning
the weight of mist
in Spanish moss

Credits: Spanish Moss

summer stillness

the play of light and shadow
on the wind chimes

dragonfly
the tai chi master
shifts his stance

© Peggy Willis Lyles (1939-2010)

All wonderful haiku with a nice and strong scene. I hadn’t heard of Peggy Willis Lyles until a few days ago, but I fell in love with her haiku. With her the world lost a wonderful poet in 2010. She will be missed forever ... leaving an enormous heritage of gorgeous haiku.

I became inspired to write a haiku about "Spanish Moss" after reading her haiku. I never had seen Spanish Moss ... so as the above image came along on the Internet I just thought "this is worth a new haiku".

between green leaves
a waterfall without sound
Spanish Mosses fall

© Chèvrefeuille

Isn't it awesome! What a beautiful haiku Peggy Willis Lyles has written ... for sure worth reading more of her work. I hope you did like this new CDHK feature and I hope it will inspire you to write an all new haiku (or tanka).

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 18th at noon (CET). Have fun, be inspired and share your all new haiku or tanka with us all here at our Haiku Kai